Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee declared his candidacy for president at a rally Tuesday in a speech that would make a libertarian’s blood boil.
Typically, libertarians can rely on Republicans to agree with their viewpoints on economic issues and Democrats to agree with them on social freedom. Huckabee is the rare populist who wants government heavily involved in both economic and social issues.
Here are just a few highlights of Huckabee’s anti-libertarian agenda.
Anti-immigration
“We need to address the immigration issues, but not with amnesty,” Huckabee said in Tuesday’s speech. “We need to start by taking control of our own borders.” His campaign website adds, “The Washington establishment wants to rewards illegal immigrants with amnesty and citizenship. … If you reward people who play outside the rules and punish people who live within the rules, pretty soon nobody is going to play by the rules.”
Most libertarians would support immigration reform that makes it easier to come here legally, or even completely open borders. That argument is grounded not only in the economic basis of free markets, but in a moral case for improving the lives of those who want to work hard and make it in the United States.
Anti-gay marriage
“We are now threatening the foundation of religious liberty by criminalizing Christianity and demanding that we abandon biblical principles on traditional marriage,” Huckabee said in his campaign speech. His campaign website added, “I may stand alone, but I am absolutely faithful to the issue of marriage. … We must defend, protect and preserve traditional marriage.”
Libertarians have long argued that government should have no role at all in marriage. Huckabee appears not only to oppose that idea, but to oppose any federal recognition at all of gay marriage. While other Republican candidates seem comfortable with letting the issue play out in the courts, it doesn’t look like a position Huckabee will ever give up on.
Anti-defense spending cuts
“We’ve super-sized the federal bureaucracy, but we’ve downsized the military and left our borders open and uncontrolled,” Huckabee said during his speech. His campaign website adds, “We must rebuild America’s military superiority. The best way to avoid conflict is to build a lethal fighting force so strong and powerful that no one would dare mess with us.”
With $596 billion spent on the military in 2014, libertarians might scoff at any opposition to downsizing the military. Most libertarians have a bitter taste in their mouth from the nation-building that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2000s. The armed forces’ hand-me-downs often end up in the hands of the increasingly-militarized local police, which libertarians also oppose.
Anti-Free Trade
“We don’t create good jobs for Americans by entering into unbalanced trade deals that forego congressional scrutiny,” Huckabee said Tuesday in a not-so-subtle attack on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement the Obama administration is negotiating. Earlier this year he said, “If it’s not fair trade, it’s not free trade.”
Libertarians support open borders in free trade. While some trade agreements have crony capitalist carve outs and issues over intellectual property, libertarians support the general concept of free trade. Libertarian support for free markets doesn’t end at our borders.
Anti-entitlement reform
“There are some who propose that to save the safety nets, like Medicare and Social Security, we ought to chop off the payments for the people who had faithfully had their paychecks and pockets picked for the politicians, promising them, that their money would be waiting for them when they were old and sick.”
Huckabee has a point that retirees were promised their benefits, and few would advocate reducing benefits for current retirees. But the Social Security system is set to be depleted in 2034, and the disability insurance program will run out of reserve money in late 2016.
Social Security is the single largest spending program in the federal budget. Anyone serious about limiting the size of government would support a reasonable Social Security reform plan. Huckabee seems satisfied to leave the system mostly untouched.
This isn’t to say that Huckabee won’t garner any libertarian support in the Republican primary. In his announcement speech, Huckabee said the federal government should have no role in education, the IRS should be eliminated and that the country needs a Fair Tax to replace the current income tax system. He signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge against tax hikes in 2008 and will almost certainly do so again this time around. He also has a record of supporting prison sentencing reform and granted more than 1,000 clemencies while governor. These are all pet issues for certain libertarians.
Still, many libertarians will find Huckabee’s opposition to any one of the above issues a poison pill that kills his relationship with them. Huckabee’s libertarian support may be about as large as his socialist support.
